COVINGTON, Ga. — Regardless of continued opposition from two Metropolis Council members, the town of Covington has given remaining approval to a change to its code of ethics.
Council members Charika Davis and Anthony Henderson voted in opposition to the change June 15, with Henderson arguing that the change is pointless. The modification to the code states that council members are prohibited from voting to forgive money owed owed to the town by them or their fast members of the family.
Davis and Henderson additionally voted in opposition to the primary studying of the ordinance modification on June 1.
Henderson mentioned that council members already are prohibited from voting to alleviate any present or earlier money owed owed to the town. He mentioned any code of ethics change ought to handle “people who find themselves working with builders and stand to revenue.”
Davis requested Metropolis Lawyer Frank Turner who would have the authority to assert a council member is in violation of the brand new provision and what that council member may do to dispute it.
Turner defined that any citizen may file a grievance and that the Metropolis Council would then appoint an ethics committee to analyze the declare and report again to the council. A call whether or not or to not situation a reprimand could be as much as the council, he mentioned.
Council member Kim Johnson initiated the change, which disqualifies a council member from taking any motion that “would forgive, scale back, waive, compromise or in any other case extinguish any present and at present owed monetary obligation to the town by the member or a right away member of the family, no matter whether or not the identical profit is made out there to the general public at giant.”In March council member Dwayne Turner proposed forgiving all excellent stormwater charges owed to the town by the Board of Commissioners, Board of Schooling and residents. At the moment, Metropolis Lawyer Turner suggested that, underneath Georgia regulation, a authorities can’t give a present to non-public residents, and “courts have decided that forgiving a debt is a present.”
Johnson mentioned on the June 1 she proposed the change within the curiosity of transparency and accountability.
“The purpose is, in case you are representing the town and managing a $236 million funds and you may’t handle your private funds, I don’t really feel like it’s essential vote,” mentioned Johnson.
